wish to give some value to
this noble nonentity by the present of half a million, and will his
lordship be kind enough in return to take the trifling burden of my
person into the bargain?"

Her father gazed at her glowing countenance with eyes beaming with
joy; but he quickly suppressed this emotion, and reassumed a serious
air.

"Yes," he said, "the good count, in consideration of half a million,
will consent to raise the manufacturer's daughter to the rank of a
countess. But for a whole million we can obtain still more; we can
rise yet higher in the scale. If I will advance his uncle, Prince
Saldem, half a million to redeem his mortgaged estates, the prince
promises to adopt the nephew, your suitor, as his son. You would
then be a princess, Elise, and I would have the proud satisfaction of
calling a prince my son."

"As if the king would consent to a nobleman thus demeaning himself!"
cried Elise; "as if he would graciously allow the count so far to
degrade himself!"

"Oh, the king will consent," continued her father in a light tone.
"You know that he is fond of me. Only say whether you consent to
become Countess Saldem."

"Never!" cried she proudly. "I am no chattel to be bartered, and this
miserable title of princess has no charms for me. You can command me,
father, to renounce the man I love, but you can never compel me to
give my hand to a man I do not love, were he even a king!"

Her father clasped her vehemently in his arms.

"That is blood of my blood, and spirit of my spirit," cried he. "You
are right, my child, to despise honors and titles; they are empty
tinsel, and no one believes in them any longer. We stand at the portal
of a new era, and this era will erect new palaces and create new
princes; but you, my child, will be one of the first princesses of
this new era. Manufactories will be the new palaces, and manufacturers
the new princes. Instead of the sword, money will rule the world, and
men will bow down before manufacturers and merchants as they are
wont to do before generals. Therefore I say you are right in refusing
Prince Saldem's offer, for I promise you, you shall be a princess,
even without the title, and the great and noble shall bow as low
before your riches as if they were a ducal diadem."

Elise shook her head with a melancholy smile: "I have no desire for
such homage, and I despise the base metal with which you can buy
everything."

"Despise it not!" cried her father, "prize it r